You're either timing it wrong or it's going too fast. It could be a weird glitch as well but I've never heard of it or seen it happen. You are able to parry from below. Just gotta be really fast.

Jump and then immediately parry

FOr things above you have to be really fast depending on how fair it is above ya.

It's possible, but it takes practice. P sugar is the easiest way to do it, but if you want to do it manually, your going to have to get good at it. I still struggle with it, in fact.

For parrying something that is right above you, I usually do a quick double tap on the jump button to hit the parry before it hits me.

Auto parry helped me

Jump towards it and parry when you land on them

I would certainly recommend using auto party on this boss, but if not, just press Parry a second before you hit the ground

It helps build your super bar, so very helpful when trying to spam EXs to get rid of a boss phase quickly!

Yes. Not only can parrying completely nullify certain projectiles, which gives you more room to move and doge other attacks, but most parries will instantly fill up a special card which are very useful attacks to dish out more damage, whether that be to clear away some minions or just kill the boss. Getting 5 cards for a full meter is incredibly useful for a powerful attack to do heavy damage.

Also, there are some levels where parrying is literally necessary to win. This includes:

• King Dice, who can only be avoided by successfully parrying the pink heart cards.
  • Two mini bosses in that fight also require parrying. Hopus Pocus the bunny has an attack where sends down card suit symbols, two of which can be parried, which is the only way to avoid that attack. The other is Mr. Chimes the claw monkey, who can only be attacked after parrying the correct cards in a giant game of Snap
• The Phantom Express, where you need to parry the pistons on a cart to move it across the stage. This is needed to dodge a ton of attacks, and there will be flying pumpkins that drop bricks from the sky on the pistons. Parry the bricks, stop the cart from moving, don't get hurt.
• The final phase of Ribby and Croaks the frogs uses parrying to pull the Slot Machine lever, allowing them to be attacked.
• Dr Kahl's robot sends out a drone from its' chest in the first phase that fires electricity above and below it. The only way to stop this attack is to parry the drone, deactivating it.
• The Devil has some attacks that are practically unavoidable without parrying, and in his final phase the only way to avoid being hit by the casino chips is to parry his tears. It's technically possible to avoid them with expert timing and a bit of luck, but not recommended in the slightest.
• The Run 'n Gun level Perilous Piers has a final obstacle where you need to parry a gem on a cannonball firing octopus to clear your way, all whilst defeating enemies and parrying the gem multiple times to clear more rocks.

You could try and parry right before the projectile is close to you and hits you, since pressing the jump button in the air spawns in a parry hit box around the player for 0.2 seconds so the player can parry off of projectiles and other parryable objects.

Either you get the parry or you get hit but there's no simply missing it

Its all in the timing, the tutorial is always a fun way to practice

Pressed it half a second too early.

Me (A P-Sugar enjoyer):

https://preview.redd.it/54k9f6ai2p0f1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5170f69f3bd58a8bdbcc6d40599e05897bff3761

One rule of parrying for me is that it is never too soon to press jump when you want to parry something. Like somebody else said in this thread, the time box is very generous, but it is around 1 sec - 0,5 sec before actually hitting the pink object. You can quickly be too late.

> It requires closeness to an enemy in a game without the ability to regain

> Requires a jump before use, which substantially reduces its viability in stages where jumping is a hindrancehealth

> Sends the user upward after a successful parry, possibly into an airborne enemy and limiting the parry's useful area by a substantial height

Yep, these are all part of the risk part of parrying. Although parrying does become necessary later in the game, you shouldn't try to parry everything. You have to judge which things are worth parrying. You only need 3 parries in each level to get a perfect score, and most levels will give you many more opportunities than that. You can just avoid the ones that are too risky.

On the last point, you can cancel the jump with a dash. Of course this just trades a vertical commitment for a horizontal commitment. It's a situational tool.

> It requires a double press when all other moves only require one

If by double press you mean jump and then parry, yes, but it only feels like a double press if you are trying to instantly parry something from the ground.

> It shares the same button as another face button, requiring you to both hold the fire button and intermittently press jump in a specific manner with the same thumb

You can and should reassign your controls in the options menu. Most people put shoot on a shoulder button at a minimum.

> Utilizes an extremely small and unclear hitbox with zero frames of invincibility

Unclear I will grant you, but it's not small, it's actually larger than your hurtbox, and the timing is quite generous.

> 1. Parrying feels unresponsive. About 1/3 of my parries miss their mark, especially when the target is above.

This just means you need to work on your timing. I think there might also be a lock out mechanic to prevent you from spamming the parry button, but I'm not sure.

> 2. Parrying only grants one card, which can be easily substituted for about ten seconds of shooting. The reward doesn't match the risk.

One card is pretty huge. 10 seconds is a long time in this game.

> 4. Parrying is mandatory. Bosses like Phantom Express and King Dice require parrying to beat. The option the game gives up to this point of granting the player variety in combat is completely wiped away.

Yes, parrying becomes mandatory around the second half of the game. Even in levels that don't strictly require it, you'll be at a huge disadvantage if you're not maximizing your use of super meter with parries. You see this as removing variety, I see it as forcing the player to master all of the game's mechanics. The variety is in your choice of weapons and charms. But this is not a game that lets you pick and choose which mechanics you will use.

Just remap the shoot button to RT, it'll make things so much easier.

Lol ur bad

For what it’s worth, Phantom Express and King Dice are both beatable without parrying. Parrying just makes those fights significantly easier.

It also doesn’t technically require a double button press to parry. It just requires you to push the jump button while airborne. If you fall off a ledge, for example, you can just press jump once and parry. Also, parrying on airplane levels requires only one button press always.

Just a tip: never stop shooting. Literally never stop holding the button unless you’re using charge. If the shoot button on your controller is hard to hold while doing other things, remap it to something else, like the trigger.

You are already a Pro Player

bro you have a carrier ahead of you

All without Smoke dash as well. Absolute perfection

I didn’t parry the mint much here because it makes it difficult to evade and parry at the same time.

1. Your meter for super effects will fill faster
2. To do "doublejump"
3. It's necessary in some levels like the Sea Run n Gun or the Train boss
4. To revive your friend

I just finished the story in the game and didn't realise you could parry. I ended up turning off combat damage on the >!cathedral arena and after!<, but this might have helped. Is it in the manual?

This should probably be censored as parrying isn't something players know they can do when they get the shield

Now try parrying a group of rudelings all at the same time

I forgot how to do this, is it just double-tap?

Trust me with this, try using this everywhere, even if you feel it won’t be useful!

When I first started playing Cuphead, I had NO experience with any type of controller or keyboard, and I somehow learned how to beat the whole game (pre-DLC) and master it. I recommend just practicing

Here are my keybinds, hope they help WASD for moving Left shift for shooting Right shift for EX Enter for Dash Q for locked shooting (I never use this and have beaten all the bosses in the game and DLC with A- or greater. Space for jumping. Hope I helped :)

Parry them before they hit the ground to get to the top so you can parry all of them at once.